1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a dry shaver with a trimmer, and more particularly a dry shaver with a pivotable trimmer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior dry shavers, there have been incorporated generally two type of trimmers, namely, slidable type and pivotable type, as schematically shown in FIGS. 17 and 18, respectively. In a slidable type, the trimmer comprises a trimmer plate 60A slidably mounted on a shaver housing 10A to be vertically movable therealong between a lower inoperative position and an upper operative position where a trimmer cutter 62A projects in an adjacent relation to a main cutter 20A. In a pivotable type, the trimmer comprises a trimmer plate 60B pivoted at its one end to an upper end of a shaver housing 10B adjacent a main cutter 20B to be movable between an inoperative position where it lies flat against the front face of the housing 10B and an operative position where it pivots at about a right angle to the front face for projecting a trimmer cutter 62B outwardly away from the main cutter 20B. The slidable-type trimmer is found to be advantageous in trimming hairs on the underside of the chin as the main cutter 20A gives less hindrance to the trimming operation, shown in FIG. 19. On the other hand, the pivotable-type trimmer is advantageous in trimming sideburns since the main cutter 20B can be well spaced from the trimmer cutter 62B so as not to be in touch with an ear, as shown in FIG. 20. However, the slidable-type trimmer and the pivotable-type trimmer are rather inconvenient when trimming the opposite portions, i.e., hairs on the underside of the chin and the sideburns, respectively, in both of which the main cutters 20A and 20B will certainly hamper the movement of the trimmer. In order to alleviate the above inconvenience, German patent publication DE 3 111 871 proposes an inclined-type trimmer in which a trimmer plate is inclined with respect to the front face of a shaver housing when it is moved upwardly into an operative position. Thus, a trimmer cutter at the upper end of the trimmer plate can be located in an adjacent relation to the main cutter in the operative position and project forwardly from the front face of the housing by a distance which is greater than that in the slidable-type trimmer but less than that in the pivotable-type trimmer. Therefore, the trimmer of this patent might can alleviate the above problem and be conveniently handled for trimming the hairs on the underside of the chin as wells as the sideburns. However, there remains another problem in that the skin might be irritated or even injured by the edge of the trimmer cutter when the trimmer cutter is pushed against the skin for close shaving, particularly for hairs on a relatively delicate skin such as on the underside of the chin. With this result, the user should refrain from pushing the trimmer cutter against the skin and therefore fail to achieve desired close shaving.